Hobbs healthy and providing veteran presence for Vols' defensive line

Tennessee senior defensive tackle Daevin Hobbs has been a productive player for the Vols in the trenches when healthy. Unfortunately for him, though, health wasn't always on his side the past calendar year. Hobbs, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound lineman out of Concord, North Carolina, first suffered an injury to his foot during fall camp of the 2025 season. It held him out the rest of the preseason as well as the first month of the season. "Those injuries get to your head, they really do," Hobbs said last week at preseason media day. "You've just got to have good people around you and not get too stuck being alone. It's never good to be alone. Always have good people in your corner for you to talk to, not just about football, but anything. Get your mind off of it. "When you come back to the facility and you're injured, you've got to be even more locked in to come back ready to go. You've got to come back and catch back up with everybody since they've been full go." Hobbs made his return on Oct. 11 against Arkansas, registering five total tackles, a sack and a forced fumble in a Tennessee victory over the Razorbacks. He went on to play in the final eight games of the season, including a standout statistical outing on Nov. 15 against New Mexico State. Hobbs posted nine total tackles, a quarterback hurry and two pass breakups. The then-junior registered a career-high 30 tackles in just eight games played to go with three sacks. However, after building up momentum from the fall, Hobbs once again became sidelined with injury. In late March, the defensive lineman re-injured the same foot from fall camp, forcing him out of action for the rest of spring practice. "(The biggest challenge) was just being gone," he said of the re-aggravation. "Being away from the team. Missing the last couple practices of spring ball. I just wanted to be out there with them. That's the worst thing ever – when everybody is out there together and you're not fully out there with them. That's a really hard thing to come over. But we've got a good team and everybody keeps the energy up." Coming into the year, Hobbs is back to feeling healthy and also feels his game has grown under the guidance of new strength coach Derek Owings. Owings arrived in January after spending the past two seasons on Curt Cignetti's staff at Indiana. Hobbs credits the new addition for his growth in upper-body strength and short-burst quickness. "My first impression was, 'Oh man, this dude is going to have us doing the most,'" Hobbs recalled. "But after the first couple of weeks, I was like, 'I like this. I feel myself going to where I need to be going.' By that second week, everybody bought in and locked in. Everybody now sees the results they were posting on social media and it's been crazy to see. Everybody looks swole. Everybody looks like a football player." Owings wasn't the only new addition to the coaching staff over the offseason. Jim Knowles arrived in Knoxville in December to serve as the new defensive coordinator. A 2024 national champion at Ohio State, Knowles is looking to improve a Tennessee defense that ranked 91st in the FBS in both total defense and scoring defense. Knowles brought with him three assistants from former stops as well as three former players from Penn State, where he was last season. There is both a coach and player that has been with the DC previously at all three levels of the defense, with LEOs coach Andrew Jackson and former Nittany Lion Xavier Gillam in the defensive line room. It's a point Hobbs believes has helped the group tremendously. "When they're on the field with us, they're making all the right calls, all the things to make things easier for us d-linemen," he said. "Then with Coach (Jackson) in the room, he was there last year with Coach Knowles, helps us a bunch, too. He's telling us the ins-and-outs of how everything is supposed to work and that's been really helpful for us."